Good day,
Can I please ask if there is a solution, for my starter. I have been feeding it regularly for 10 days now, every 24 hours, whole wheat bread flour, it still smells good, and bubbles a bit, but never once doubled in volume. The temperature here is almost 30 degrees celsuis and humid.
Should I try to bake a bread or keep on feeding till it doubles in volome one day. I trough away half a cup and add half a cup of flour every day, with the same weight in water.
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Replies
With a room temperature of 30C, you need to be feeding your starter at least twice daily. It may be very close to ready, but not doubling because it's on too strict a diet! I assume you're leaving it out of the fridge the whole time at the moment?
Once it is properly active and being fed enough, it will clearly increase in volume 5-8 hours after its feed, and when you dig into it with a knife you'll be able to see that it's airy and light all the way through, like mousse.
Don't forget to post some pics of your first loaf. Somehow, I don't think that's far away!
Cheers
Ross
One thing you could try, along the same lines as Ross's comment ...
Instead of throwing away just half a cup, try throwing away basically all of your starter, leaving just the dregs at the bottom of the container. Then add your half cup flour & equal weight (probably about 75g = 75mL) water.
You might want to save the "thrown away" starter in a separate container, just in case this doesn't work. But I agree with Ross, and not only to feed more often, but also the amount of new material when feeding should be significantly more than the amount of starter, e.g. 1:4:4 starter:flour:water (by weight), or maybe even a fair bit more in such a hot climate.
Here is a good article on feeding starters (at least one person's take): http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/09/29/maintain-starter/
Or are you leaving it while you go off to work etc...?
It may be rising and falling while you are gone... I'm with Ross and mlucas.
Terri
Thank you to everyone for the advice. It never doubled and fell back it was just lingering, it got some bubbles smells good and only slightly raised in volume, and it was then that I thought I might be feeding it to much. Because the previous starters just got out of hand quickly, but I was not good at judging when it was ready for baking and used it too soon! But will feed it twice a day now, and I'm shaking with excitement to bake the bread!
Mika,
When I make my starter thicker, it more than doubles. It becomes a blob that takes over my kitchen. If your getting bubbles, then it's working. Try weighing your flour and water, use equal amounts. A good quality postal or kitchen scale works nicely. With more flour, those bubbles will be "caught" by the thicker dough, instead of released into the atmosphere, and you'll see more growth. When I use wheat flour, things tend to happen faster. I don't judge my starter by the growth anymore, as much as the smell after 18 to 20 hrs after feeding. I've been using a thinner starter, 60% distilled water, and 40% flour, because from all I've read, this should promote better LAB. Here's a picture of a starter that took over. Good luck!
hi Mika. the same thing happened to me. on about day 15 i decided to put my discarded starter into another jug with thicker glass and to continue with the original starter as well. the second starter grew madly and expanded while the original starter although i treated it exactly the same bubbled and smelled delicious but did not expand. i've frozen a bit of the second starter and it's doing well.